[SIC] 282: Malicious Compliance

Volume Six, Number Twenty-Two

This Week: [SIC] Talks with Ryan Broderick of Garbage Day and the [SIC] Weekly digest of pertinent developments, compiled by Ben Dietz and Published free on Thursdays to 5128 subscribers who’ve opted in. Pass it along to people you like. Here’s a button:

[SIC] is a one-person operation that grows via word-of-mouth. Paid subscriptions are also available. Many paying supporters expense their subscriptions as research for their work in marketing, advertising, entertainment and tech. Paying subscribers get an additional [SIC] Day microdigest of 10 links every Mon, Tues, Weds, Fri, and the [SIC] Sundays dispatch. And founding supporters get invited to dinner parties at my home in NYC, with special guests.

Corollary sources this week:The Future Party/ Dealbook / Elevator / Embedded / After School / Patent Drop / Context Collapse / Nieman Lab / 1440 / Kottke / Hubspot Trends / Best Made / Blazer / Fashion Statement / Cultural Counsel

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Hi all,

My annual sober/vegan Feb is off to a harried start (I already accidentally ate some Cheetos) - so forgive the late send. This is year 21 of straight-edge Februaries for me, and tho I am not looking forward to it, it’s a chance to reset more generally too. This month I’m going to try and revive a years-ago challenge of watching a different film each day of the month, so if you’ve got any suggestions (especially ones that won’t make me want to drink, haha) - send em, please.

Apropos of that, thanks to Piers Fawkes, Jasmine Bina, Ian Edgar, Jose Castillo, Matt @TheTechnorati, Rob Hubbert, Dan Bradley, Celeste Blewitt and Iolanda Carvalho for contributions and especially to David Bloom, who also suggested this week’s title. I love any and all feedback, so if you got it, send it!

[SIC] Talks this week was with Ryan Broderick, a former colleague of mine and one of the most important voices, via his mighty Garbage Day newsletter, covering tech, AI, socials, subcultures and all the ways those spheres overlap. There is rarely an edition of [SIC] that doesn’t refer in some way to Ryan’s work, and the conversation was fascinating. Dig in, or miss a good one. And definitely do subscribe to Garbage Day.

Incidentally, Ryan’s top 5 links from this digest (which also appear in context in the main section): Williamsburg, What Happened? Techno authoritarianism. Zine’s Meta-Trend Report 2024. Tiktok going full YouTube, and AI Chatbot Girlfriends Won’t Last.

Now - the links.

Ben

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[SIC] 282: Malicious Compliance

Things to enrich you: Dirt x Elsewhere’s 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓝𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓵𝓲𝓯𝓮 𝓡𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀 is 60 pages, 6 x 8.75'', saddle stitch and retails for $20. Buy it here. OG [SIC] homie Nick Catchdub’s made an Unidentified Flying Playlist to launch his newsletter. And newsletter gawd Big Spyplane made a playlist for drapey minimalists Studio Nicholson.

The Macro Narrative

• The Rise of Technoauthoritarianism /The Atlantic

• Meanwhile at Axios, co-founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen offer a more receptive take on a group they call “techno-optimists” / Axios

• Either way, goodbye to the days of ambient cultural liberalism / FT

• Hence: Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and a MAGA Meltdown / NYT

• AKA: Taylor Swift and the Manosphere / Garbage Day

• Related: Gen Z Boys and Men are more likely than Boomers to believe belive Feminism Harmful / The Guardian

• America’s Immigration Reckoning Has Arrived / The Atlantic

• From Iolanda: Digital Culture Review: What 2023's fringes will mean for 2024's mainstream - We Are Social UK

• From Jasmine: “I recently wrote a piece on Creating New Units of Culture that I think you may appreciate” / Concept Bureau

• [SIC] Talks Alum Casey Lewis  talks to the guys at Hyper about TikTok hauls, underserved markets, and fundamental shifts in consumer / Hyperstudios

• While [SIC] Talks Alum Matt Klein dropped his META Trending Trends: 2024 report (you should read it)/ Zine

• On the subject of trends and lists: 19 Ways to Make Money as a Writer / Susannah Breslin

• Because, in Casey Lewis’s words: “In 2024, to exist online is to be a salesperson, in one way or another.”  How Affiliate Links

• Became Everyone’s Low-Lift Side Hustle/ Bustle

• From Piers “This week’s article about the end of drinking beer out of home.” [Last orders: Britain's pubs struggle to survive in an atomized, remote-work world] / LAT

• Another from Piers, as corollary: “Do we watch ‘enhanced’ too? [ The Enhanced Games: Peter Thiel backs drug-fuelled Olympics-style competition ]

• Elsewhere in ‘sports’: Who is the Magic Johnson of economics? Who was the Adam Smith of basketball? / The New Bazaar

• From Eric: I never heard this term [“Luxury Beliefs”] before reading this piece in the times. There are many other takes on the value or truth of it as a concept, but I found it compelling / NYT

• Per Zeihan: Maritime Shipping is Facing Collapse / YT

• US job openings are rising, but not many people are quitting / Reuters

• Gen Z is rebranding part-time gigs as ‘poly-work’ amid struggle to make ends meet. “Side hustle” is so millennial-coded / NYP

• Also millennial coded? Renters embrace "expandable apartments" / Axios

• Welcome to Your Recyclable, Affordable 3D-Printed Home / Reasons To Be Cheerful

• From Jose: “For SIC if you haven’t already seen this.” [Williamsburg. What Happened] / NYT

• From Eric:  This seems important [ Does Dry January include Marijuana?] / Bloomberg

• From Matt: Psychedelics are outperforming trauma researchers’ expectations. But why? / Vox

• So let’s go Tripping on LSD in Isolation Tanks and Talking to Dolphins / DoubleBlind

• The man who collects lost pet posters / The Waiting Room

• From Piers: “Slightly train spotterish but interesting how transport’s notion of peak pricing monday-friday has to change as the 3 day office week remains” / Londonist

Generationations

• Gen Z workers have given Manhattan the nickname “Work Island.” / NYP

• Millennials don’t know what to wear. Gen Z, defining cool on TikTok, has thoughts / NYT

• More Zoomer thoughts: Gen Z loves self-checkout because it makes shoplifting easy  / Fortune

• The women getting into modelling in their 50s and 60s. Demand for more mature faces has lured former professionals and first-timers/ FT

Platformations

• Just a few years ago, Twitter was reporting that “nearly half” of all of the tweets came from users 16-24. Now Less Than 1% of Users are Teens/ TechCrunch

• Creators call out 4 trends that will take over TikTok in 2024 / Hubspot

• TikTok Goes Full YouTube / The Verge

• We have entered the age of TikTok face / Dazed

• And from Iolanda: How TikTok created a new accent – and why it might be the future of English People on TikTok have developed a specific accent - would you recognise it if you heard it?

• TikTok is testing a new feature where every video on the app would become shoppable / The Future Party

• We’re getting disillusioned by overconsumption on TikTok  / Teen Vogue

• Universal Music Group announced that it’ll no longer license its content to TikTok starting today / The Future Party

• Snap is seeking to patent “ enhanced reading with AR glasses.” / USPTO

• Hulu aired an AI-generated anti-Hamas ad / Wired

• Illegal streaming pirates are bringing in $2 billion a year in ads and subscriber fees / Bloomberg

• Reddit is said to be weighing a valuation of at least $5 billion for its planned I.P.O. / Bloomberg

Stylistics

• French fashion houses are very into the styles of workwear staple Carhartt right now / Highsnobiety

• On the topic of influences: Simon Porte Jacquemus On the Future and What He Learned from Rei Kawakubo / Show Notes

• How to Cultivate an Aura of Mystery and Intrigue / He Spoke Style

• Sotheby’s sees Generational Shift in Luxury Sales Up 40% since the pandemic / Fortune

• The gateway drug: how handbags are bringing in new auction house buyers / The Art Newspaper

• FOAM-Oh! Meet the sneakerheads on a mission to stop their footwear collections from decaying / Wired

• Which brand is winning China’s lucky red underwear trend? / Jing Daily

• Cult Danish menswear label Mfpen steps into the spotlight / Vogue Business

• A conversation with one of menswear's great, early street style photographers/ Sprezza

• The Secret Strategist’s Lamp-a-palooza featuring [SIC] homie Erin Falls / NYMag

• Fashion brands can’t get enough of late musicians’ estates / Vogue Business

• Make mine i-heart by @kenzominami: Let’s all join the Niche tote bag club / One Thing

Culturations

• From Celeste: [6 Things We Learned From Season Of Swift] / Intelligencer

• Is The Internet Performance Art? Tinx And Maya Man, Two Digital Creators, Discuss / Byline

• From Piers: Dezeen In Depth explores how The Sims stays current in design and architecture trends / Dezeen

• Bridget Fonda: the 90s Great Who Vanished without a Trace  / The Independent

• Justin Timberlake’s Air of Desperation / The Atlantic

• From Ian: More movies going the way of Batgirl / The Guardian

• From Ian: Art made from the frontiers of Red Dead Redemption 2. I love the edges of the map” / Squarespace

• No One Knows What Opera Is. Tom Phillips’s Irma questions the genre of the libretto / Frieze

• Jeffrey Wright tells Monocle about the book that inspired [American Fiction] and the art of satire / Monocle Pod

• These Are the Artists in the 2024 Venice Biennale / Hyperallergic

• What's behind Russia’s new-found love of African art? / The Art Newspaper

• How Cole Bennett Built His Own World on 'All Is Yellow' / Hypebeast

• Meth Math’s path to a reggaeton revolution / The FACE

• The IFPDA Print Fair, the largest and most important fair dedicated to fine art prints and printmaking, returns from February 15–18, 2024, at the Park Avenue Armory / IFPDA

• Speaking of ‘prints’ (har…) Richard Prince will pay at least $650,000 to two photographers whose work he appropriated in his controversial New Portraits series / Hyperallergic

• The Orlando Museum of Art’s Basquiat Fiasco / The Atlantic

• While The changing attitudes to Carl Andre’s 'bricks' show how art museums have been sucked into the culture wars / The Art Newspaper

• From Rob: the impossible world of Daniel Arnold / YouTube

• From Piers: A Photographer’s Ode to Suburbia’s Teens / Hyperallergic

• The artist Sunday Nobody has found millions of viewers with his elaborate absurdist projects. / NYT

• Ai Weiwei Questions AI in New  London Installation / Hypeart

• Corollary: Inside the Music Industry’s High-Stakes A.I. Experiments / The New Yorker

• Speaking of questions, from Celeste: “This is a great point, given K-Pop is normally fresh, clean and extremely synchronised. A new wave of pop is coming through” [If It Isn't Perfect, is It Still K-Pop?]/NYT

Technopolis

• The Selective Backlash to Fashion AI / Back Row

• From Ian: The early days of AI literature are pretty rough / Screencrush

• And Fortnite has a problem with racist AI art / Creative Bloq

• Economist Tyler Cowen on How ChatGPT Is Changing Your Job / Youtube

• From Iolanda: Generative AI isn’t marketing’s future, it’s part of its present / Marketing Week

• Apropos: Stripe, Google, Intercom, Zapier and others on how they encourage AI adoption for their teams / Ben’s Bites

• A new AI companion designed for coaching, yoga and meditation is the latest in the industry's effort to encourage personal relationships with chatbots/ Axios

• AI girlfriend bots won’t last… / Quartz

• But Mixed reality is magic / LowPass

• Chris Dixon on the state of crypto / NYT Pod

Media-tions

• Media layoffs may drive more journalists to brands - IE Platformer’s deal with Sherwood / Twitter

• Former NPR Music editor Cyrena Touros posted an exhaustive list of the 22 media outlets that laid off significant staff or simply shut down in 2024 / Twitter

• Digital media startup The Messenger shut down less than one year after its launch / The Hill

• Media bloodbath drives union frenzy / Axios

• From David Bloom: “Why we don’t need Pitchfork, many music journalists, or even many employees at music companies anymore. An interesting take….” Why Is Music Journalism Collapsing? This is a bigger problem that you can fix with a Pitchfork / Ted Gioia

• Yet Minute Media, parent company to sites like The Players' Tribune and Mental Floss, raised a new round of funding, valuing the firm over $1 billion / Axios

• The future of journalism? A Student Newspaper In Iowa Just Bought Two Local Weeklies/ Nieman Lab

• Business Insider will no longer have a dedicated news desk, combining it with lifestyle and business  / Press Gazette

• BuzzFeed, Culture Genesis to combine multicultural ad inventory / Digiday

• How British GQ's Adam Baidawi reimagined the legacy men's luxury publication for a modern, global audience / Digiday

• How NBC’s Dateline took back its true-crime throne via podcasts / WaPo

Market / Influence

• How Do You Make a Weed Empire? Sell It Like Streetwear. / NYT Mag

• Are Lunar New Year collabs making waves in China / Jing Daily

• Pharrell's Lego biopic is one of the strangest collabs ever / Creative Bloq

• Has fashion marketing become boring? / The Drum

• Does new Disney Junior logo take simplification too far? / Creative Bloq

• Visualizing the world's most valuable brands / Visual Capitalist

• An average NFL game: more than 100 commercials and just 11 minutes of play / Quartz

• Heisler, TV’s Favorite Beer (That Doesn’t Exist) / Vinepair

• Coca-Cola will be stripping Sprite bottles of labels in an attempt to streamline recycling. But Sprite's naked bottles are underwhelming at best / Creative Bloq

• How Brands Can Be Topical Without F*cking It Up / Creative Review

• Phish, Peloton, and The Untapped Economics of Irrational Enthusiasm / JSG

Eats, Drinks and Ephemera

• From Piers:  nice insights into creative process here in this interview [Allan Wexler On Dining As Interface] / This is Mold

• From Piers: In the South, Gas Stations Are Temples of Commerce and Community / NYT

• How McDonald’s powers America’s economy / Quartz

• You're probably eating way too much protein / Vox

• But if not, from Dan: “My freezer and belly are both full and I can't recommend it enough” [The Dirty Dog Farm Bulk Beef Subscription] / Dirty Dog

• Hence: Seeing Viral Pork TikToks? It’s a government-backed group pushing meat on Gen Z / Politico

• Environmentalists and meat producers have formed an unlikely alliance to prevent the Brazilian beef giant JBS from listing on the New York Stock Exchange / NYT

• Related: Why Olive Oil Prices Are Soaring And What To Do About It /BBC

• Corollary? You Just Ate Mold—Now What? / GQ

The Natural (?!) World

• The $10 trillion benefits of overhauling our food system / The Verge

• Consider the Vulture. We think of scavengers as gross—but they clean up nature’s messes, and they need saving / The New Yorker

• The Museum of Walking / Museum of Walking

• A film about building a sauna in Alaska / Nowness

[SIC] 282: Malicious Compliance